Opening the Doors of Destiny: A Report from Carole on the South Sudan National Prayer Gathering

I feel like we were in a delivery room – a birthing room – travailing, rending our hearts, and repenting for Cain’s spilling of Abel’s blood, blood that has poured down like a river. Walking the land- breaking covenants with the powers of darkness – weary with crying out. Feeling the pain of murdered children that are no more. Weeping for the thousands slaughtered mercilessly and unnecessarily to satisfy the greed, revenge, and rage of man – mowed down with guns, drowned in the Nile River trying to escape, captured and told “Kill all you can kill, till you drop dead,” and that they do…

The wailing of childless mothers, of widows left behind from thousands of fighting soldiers. Weeping on the ground, crying out the Word, rending of our hearts and our very flesh, praying and pushing until the heavens are opened. Crying out for this bloodstained land to be bathed in the blood of the Lamb – weary and exhausted, then suddenly dancing with joy before the Lord in the faithfulness of His promises and unchanging nature. Identifying with a desolate land to be called “married to the Lord,” Beulah, no longer forsaken.

We stayed on our faces 12 hours a day. Our team has been on the field Monday through Sunday – food forgotten, no breaks, no talking, and no rest – as they lived out II Chronicles 7:14, Joel 2, Isaiah 62, Haggai, Judges 6, and Nehemiah with the heart of their Sudanese brothers & sisters. Nothing else matters except God’s deliverance for this nation!!

An Altar to the Living Word

Scripture verses were read, hour after hour, prophetic words from the mouth of the Lord filled will all the power of heaven to cleanse (Eph. 5:23), heal (Psa.103), revive (Eze. 37), restore, (Eze. 36:11), and rebuild. (Neh. 2:17) Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word abides forever!! It is forever settled in heaven! And He watches over His word to perform it, not allowing it to return to Him void. His word became our food, became our tears, our travail, our bathwater for cleansing, the prophetic voice of God over valleys of dry bones, and the strength of a new foundation of Rock for this nation.

We sang the Word and prayed it, worshiping at that altar of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, and around His throne as one voice, one heart, one tribe and one nation though many. Jesus, the spotless Lamb, was lifted again over this land. His blood was poured out on South Sudan, to cover and heal the blood of thousands of murdered men, women, and children, and wash this nation clean – as fresh fallen snow. Only God… only God… can do what He did in this nation.

There were Sudanese exiled from the north. There were refugees who had fled for safety to Juba from the northern states of Jongeli, Unity, Upper Nile, and other places of intense bloodshed and fighting. There were Ethiopians, Kenyans, Ugandans, Botswanians and others beyond count standing together with our brothers and sisters for the total healing and restoration of this nation. There were businessmen who left their places of work to be on their face at this altar. There were doctors, housewives, Members of Parliament, military officials, government officers, soldiers, educators, musicians, worshippers, prayer warriors, children, and so many more. As the dwelling place of God was rebuilt from these grounds, God gave the land a willingness to pray, a hunger for unity and His presence, and an urgency to rebuild, so that the latter glory of this land will be greater than the former.

We repented; we tore down the altars of Baal and idolatry as Gideon did in Judges 6 in order to build in its place an altar to the Living God.

I came back to the room each night wiped! Empty, poured out, depleted, exhausted, but the rest during each night was deep and sound, and God totally refreshed us day and after day.

What can I say? How can I describe what God has done these days? Can I measure heaven? Can you measure His glory, the depth of the work of the Spirit in heart after heart, the binding of the strongman in the heavenlies over a whole nation? The rending of hearts for the rending of heaven? No I can’t… but the fruit will continue to be seen.

The Battle Signs Surface

We started the citywide, 40-day prayer and fasting chain leading up to this prayer encounter in Juba, right about the same time as the 40-day, Muslim fast of Ramadan. We were at this prayer altar, right in the heart of the city, as Ramadan was finishing and there was a public holiday for the Muslim celebration worldwide. On that day, many of the Muslim opposition gathered themselves alongside the open field where the prayer gathering was being held and began their bowing down and worshiping with their faces to the ground, all the time moving closer to our prayer gathering. It was stark, open, opposition to what God was doing in the heavenlies. Their strongholds were weakening and they knew it. We prayed the harder, binding this horrible spirit of evil, oppression, victimization, and antichrist. War took place in the heavenlies, and as God’s people prayed like Daniel in Chapter 9, God released the armies of heaven to come and do battle over the land again. He Himself arose, and His enemies were scattered!! He arises with a righteous indignation when His people cry out, and He comes swiftly (Psa. 18) to repossess what is rightfully His!!!! They stopped praying after some time of spiritual battle on our part and moved back off the land – a sign of victory over the powers of darkness!!

Three times we prayed away black angry clouds full of lighting, that would have poured rain down on us, soaking the event, and collapsing the tents. We are in the middle of rainy season, and yet the Lord heard and gave us the authority Jesus had in the boat when He spoke to the wind and the rain and calmed the storm. We stayed completely dry, while the rains poured down in the neighboring part of the city

The last day, as a gentle wind swept over the grounds and the prayer altar was almost full, the Lord opened heaven and gave us light showers, which we prayed in, danced in, knelt in, as a people, dedicating again the nation to the Lord. Showers here are a sign of God’s blessings, His peace, and His favor shining upon the land once again. I had wept and wept for Hosea 10:12, “Lord, please rain righteousness upon the land again, as we are on our faces, breaking up the fallow and hardened ground of our hearts…” and the Lord did – both physically and spiritually.

A Divine Destiny in a Critical Hour

South Sudan – the only Arabic speaking nation in Africa that is not Muslim-ruled – has been prepared for “such a time as this” to arise and take the Gospel with purity of speech into the Muslim, Arabic speaking nations!!! They have a divine destiny to take the power of the Gospel – radical in prayer and in preaching, signs, wonders and miracles – to easily reach these nations which were previously closed!!! What a destiny!! And this destiny WILL be fulfilled. Zephaniah 3:9-10 was one of the prophetic passages read about this nation – along with so many others day after day.

The Cushite people are mentioned over 140 times in the Bible with promises of blessing, favor, abundance, and God’s high calling on their lives as a nation. We are praying in the land of the Cushites. That would have been their new name as a nation – and that is what the church wanted. Though the western nations refused them that title, God has not refused them!! His promises are “yes” and Amen, and they still stand strong for a nation He has called and ordained to take His Word to the ends of the African continent, and then the ends of the earth!!!

A Grateful Hunger

Leader after leader, bishops, pastors, intercessors, MP’s, strong believing Christian soldiers – all stood one after the other – hour after hour, day after day, and testified, “This is the first time we have been drawn together as a land to seek the face of our God for a true II Chronicles 7:14 experience. This is the first time we have ever, in unity as a nation, built a prayer altar in our land to the Lord Jesus Christ – an altar of worship, of repentance, of sacrifice, and of covenant.”

“How grateful we are for God using others in such a powerful way, to draw us together over tribalism, traditions, culture, bloodshed, hatred, revenge, murder, businesses, cares of the world, and generational strongholds to come as one body, one heart, and one nation to be on our knees together, to seek the face of our one and only Savior… the only One who can save, forgive, and restore, and arise with Healing in His wings.”

Their hearts could not express their overwhelming gratitude for what God and God alone was doing.

And they pleaded, “Please don’t stop here.” We MUST continue to pray, to be united, to seek His face together, and live in the new covenant that our Father has made with us, and we with Him.

A Sign of His Presence

On the last day of our prayer gathering, I preached two services in a Juba, English, and Arabic speaking church and poured my heart out with a passion beyond anything I’ve every known a message called “Worshipers Take Down Giants.” The Davidic anointing and heart of a true worshiper was what God used to face the stronghold of darkness, defiance, and evil in Goliath and to deliver a nation. God confirmed His Word and poured out such a level of worship in the building – deep, passionate, and transformational – as the congregation was on their knees, faces, standing or sitting – each person pressing deeply into the very heart of God.

We left from that incredible service where God called us from “deep unto deep,” and drove quickly to the stadium for the last day of the prayer gathering – arriving just in time and finding the people already gathered and waiting to begin our last day of prayer for six hours – no food, no break, no rest – but so energized with the power of heaven, it was unbelievable!!

I had asked God for a visible sign of His presence from this altar of prayer, as Elijah did when he stood before the prophets of Baal and called down fire from heaven. God answers sacrifice with fire!!

As we gathered in the field that day, one of our leaders received a call from the Parliament- one of the MP’s who had joined us all week at this prayer altar, and they said, “The peace talks in Addis Ababa will be signed in August!!!”

After two years of war, stalemate in battle, and continued bloodshed and slaughter, what news!!! It was truly “fire upon the altar” – news from heaven – and we knelt, wept, and rejoiced, asking the Father to now “seal that word” and let it fully come to pass!!! What a mighty and faithful Father we serve!!!

Breathing the Mountaintop Air

As we knelt there as a nation and worshiped, covenanting with our God to seek His face, follow in His ways, worship Him, and hold Him up and His Word as a banner and standard of righteousness and truth over our nation… God’s presence was so heavy in the midst of us. No one wanted to move, or to leave…. Oh if we could just stay here forever and build our tents, as the disciples said when they stood on the Mount of Transfiguration. Truly this has been a place of national transfiguration for national transformation!

How wonderful to just “pitch our tents” and dwell here. But the Lord said, “No. Go down the mountain, and begin to build, and I will restore. Begin to take THIS Gospel now to the corners of your nation, rebuilding my altars of prayer in every state. Begin to reach every tribe and tongue in your land with the news of Jesus Christ. And then “Go,” Go into all the world and run throughout the northern nations of spiritual darkness, bondage, and oppression with the powerful, liberating truth of my love. And don’t stop until every tribe, tongue, and language has heard about Me… Go! In my power and zeal, and give now, what you have received!!!” (Matt. 24:14)

And as God begins to rebuild and restore in this nation new foundations, new beginnings, new birthing, and new vision, we will run… and run hard alongside His Sudanese bride until she reaches her high calling, fulfills her divine destiny, plunders the gates of hell to increase heaven, sees that all men have heard, takes reconciliation between tribes, healing to the government, and into every area of society, and “works for the night is coming” for transformation in the land!!!

I Can’t Say Enough…

With ALL my heart and the heart of the team, the Favor Family, and the national and spiritual leaders of South Sudan – I am overwhelmingly grateful to you and the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we say thank you? Thank you for standing, praying, giving, sacrificing, and now beginning with us to help them rebuild their dreams, from ashes to glory!!! (Isa. 61)

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for carrying this cry with us, undergirding, and opening a door with us for God to absolutely enter and regain the heart of this nation through His church. The nation thanks you deeply. I wish I could have captured every word they said in deep gratitude and appreciation, one leader after another, who stood to lead the prayer hour after hour.

God knows! You’ve been here with us every minute and every day in spirit! With all my heart I thank you and with all my heart, we love you and cherish your friendship, partnership and calling in the work God has set ahead of us in the transformation of this land and in seeing that “this Gospel of the Kingdom WILL be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and the end will come.” (Matt. 24:14)